qix- / pinch

Experiment to see how well binary Javascript AST serialization compresses

Pinch

This was a quick little experiment to see how well Javascript could compress if its AST was serialized into a compact binary form.

Tested on React DOM, minified.

The un-compressed (no Gzip nor Brotli) results were pretty good - about 28% less than the original.

However, Gzip and Brotli compression performed worse than on the original, to nobody's surprise.

This wasn't a super serious or scientific test, I just wanted to see what would happen.

Final results (.p.js extension is the "pinched" version):

120585 react.js
 34550 react.js.br
 39617 react.js.z
 88257 react.p.js
 37335 react.p.js.br
 43357 react.p.js.z

Released into the Public Domain or CC0 or MIT, whichever one floats your boat.